A conventional printer for solid articles is shown, for example, in Publication Gazette of Examined Japanese Patent Application Sho 53-32759 or Publication Gazette of Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Sho 61-10457. FIG. 4 is a sectional side view showing a configuration of the conventional printer for solid articles.
In the conventional printer for solid articles shown in FIG. 4, solid articles 200 are fed from a hopper 100 to a feeding drum 101. The feeding drum 101 has a plurality of compartments which are regularly arranged in the rotation direction and axial direction of the drum. The solid articles 200 are held and carried in the pockets of the feeding drum 101. A transfer roller 102 which is made of rubber is provided to contact the surfaces of the solid articles 200 in the pockets of the feeding drum 101. Ink patterns which are turned inside out (i.e. mirror images) of patterns to be printed on the surfaces of the solid articles 200 are transferred to the surface of the transfer roller 102 from a design roller 105. When the transfer roller 102 is pushed into the solid articles 200 on the feeding drum 101, the ink patterns are transferred to the surfaces of the solid articles 200. When the transferred ink patterns are dried, the printing of the solid articles is completed. The printed solid articles 200 are dropped in a collector 103. Thus, the printed solid articles 200 are collected.
In the above-mentioned conventional printer for solid articles, arrangement of tile solid articles 200, transcription of the ink patterns and collection of the printed solid articles are executed while the feeding drum 101 rotates about a 3/4 turn. Therefore, the solid articles 200 are collected in the collector 103 without completely drying the transferred ink patterns. According to the treatment of the solid articles 200, the transferred ink patterns will be spread or tile transferred ink will run. Thus, tile solid article 200 of the spread ink pattern will be judged as an inferior article. Furthermore, after the collection of the solid articles 200 in the collector 103, the solid articles 200, which have been arranged on the feeding drum 101, lose their regular arrangements, so that it is impossible to print the patterns on both sides of the solid articles 200. Further, the printed solid articles 200 are collected in the collector 103 at random, so that it is necessary to provide another judging process independently For evaluating the quality of the printed patterns. Moreover, the judgement of the quality of the printed patterns is performed visionally, which is inefficient.